I know of a woman whose beloved dog died the day after her wedding. Life is funny like that. Every day, we gratefully hold in one hand joys and blessings that are immeasurable, and in the other hand, we begrudgingly hold life’s deep hurts and blinding disappointments.

Life does not wait for good timing to bring something our way.

And Christmas is no exception. You may have just entered into a season of pain as the holidays started up. And the newness of the situation has left you not just unsettled and unmoored but raw.

You are raw in that you do not know how to process what has swept into your life. Or you might be raw in that this thing – whatever your thing is – has rubbed you down to your core. It’s like wearing new shoes for a long day of walking and you can feel with every step that skin is being removed.

Or, like me, you find yourself raw because an old issue that you thought was either worked through or healed or at the very least buried down deep enough to be a non-issue has resurfaced, and it hurts, and it’s uncomfortable and you do not know what to do with it.

We cannot fix ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. We want to, because we don’t like to feel unpleasant things, and because we like to think we’re in control. But we cannot.

I think of Mary in those very first moments after the angel left her, before she told anyone of the news of her pregnancy. She must have felt stripped bare. She must have been beyond confused. She must have been in awe. She must have been raw.

And yet, bless her heart, her kneejerk reaction was to submit in obedience.

Let it be to me according to your word, she said.

In her rawness, she obeyed. In her rawness, she laid down her dreams for her life. In her rawness, she turned her heart to God.

God, I am without a way to heal myself today. I cannot take away my own pain. I am bare before you, I am weak, I am raw. I need you. Please cover me and heal me. Amen.

Elisabeth Klein is grateful new wife to Richard, and mom and now stepmom to five. She writes regularly at www.elisabethklein.com/blog and desires to help hurting women by bringing them hope. You may order your copy of Holidays for the Hurting: 25 Devotions to Help You Heal here.